


Mr Holmes

by Mottlemoth



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Anthea (Sherlock) Appreciation, Ficlet, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Mycroft is a Great Boss, Mycroft is a Softie, POV Anthea (Sherlock), Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Protective Mycroft Holmes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:02:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29942832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mottlemoth/pseuds/Mottlemoth
Summary: When Anthea receives bad news, she worries about revealing her distress in front of her boss - but Mr Holmes has only concern for her welfare.
Relationships: Anthea & Mycroft Holmes
Comments: 17
Kudos: 110





	Mr Holmes

**Author's Note:**

> This is a friendship ficlet, not a romance. <3 Please give me a yell if you ever find my work reposted outside of AO3.

She'd hoped that a shower and a few extra minutes on her make-up would blur away all signs of her miserable night. Her eyes are still a little red, her focus not quite at its sharpest, but it seemed like enough to get her through the day.

Then Mr Holmes arrives as usual at three minutes to nine. He takes one look at her face and stops dead, his fingers stalling on the buttons of his coat. He reads it all in an instant with one quick and practiced flicker of his eyes, and Anthea wonders why she ever even dreamed that she could hide it. Other people's minds are her master's trade; he knows them inside-out. She stood no chance in the world of keeping this to herself.

"It shan't affect my work," she says, reaching a shaking hand for a tissue from the cube on her desk. She presses it hard against her tear ducts and forces her voice to stay level. "It's nothing. I'll be alright."

Mr Holmes's jaw seems to tighten. "Who exactly is responsible?" he asks, his eyes fixed intently on her face.

Anthea explains as succinctly as she can, sticking closely to facts and to events. She doesn't want to break down in sobs in front of him. She cried enough last night, alone in her flat with old films to soothe her. She's worked too hard on her career to ruin Mr Holmes's perception of her, falling into pieces like this.

He listens without a word to her explanation. When she finishes, he gives a single nod and hangs up his coat behind the door.

"Would you be so good as to delay my coffee by half an hour?" he asks, striding into his office. "I need to place a few phone calls first. This shan't take long."

Anthea nods, numb, wondering in silence as he shuts his office door.

Half an hour later, the cup trembles in her hand as she lets herself through the same door. She places the coffee in its usual spot by his elbow, not daring to speak.

"I've spoken to the necessary people," he says, perfectly calm. He doesn't look up from the report that he's reading, his fountain pen still poised between his fingers, reading glasses balanced at the tip of his nose. "I've been assured that steps are being taken, and taken swiftly. You won't be mistreated in such a manner again."

Exhausted tears flood Anthea's eyes. "Sir—" 

"Keep me updated, will you?"

"I-I will."

"By email, if you feel unable to speak."

"Yes, sir. I will. Thank you, sir."

Mr Holmes turns over a page in his report, still reading. "You're due a salary advance some time this year, aren't you? Perhaps that could be brought forward."

_ Oh, God.  _ "Mr Holmes—"

"Would you be so good as to fetch me your personnel file?" he asks, crossing something out on the report. "Then if you could spend the rest of the day ensuring the Sheptytsky papers are fully finished, I'd be grateful."

"Oh, I... I finished them yesterday afternoon," Anthea says. "I thought you'd seen them in your tray. Shall I bring them now?"

He hums in the back of his throat. "As I said, that's your focus for the day. So long as they're still in my tray when you leave, that will do."

When she gets back from lunch, there's tea and a small bar of chocolate on Anthea's desk. He sends her off for the weekend an hour early, and buys her yellow lilies on her birthday.


End file.
